Discontent

There is a pea-green house a couple blocks from Papa and Nai Nai's home that has one big draw for our kids:

A treehouse in the backyard.

Whenever we walk or drive by that house, one of my children comments on it. "Ohhh, look at that tree house" or "Why don't we have a tree house?"

The pea-green house actually went on sale a couple months ago. The only problem was that the house itself is probably about 1000 square feet and the reason the tree house was so apparent from the road is because the yard has absolutely no privacy.

Still, my children commented on it whenever we passed the house and they saw the For Sale sign in the yard. "Why don't we buy this house?"

When the house sold and the new family -- apparently with two young children -- moved in, my children remained envious.

Last night we walked by and Gabe said, "Lucky kids. They get a treehouse and a play set."

I want to tell them to be patient. We close on our new house in one week. Our new house is almost three times the size of the pea-green house, we'll be on a private road, we'll have a beautiful view of the valley. And it's not pea-green.

But my kids are grieving the absence of a giant tree in which to construct a tree house.

I've told them we'll buy them a play set with a clubhouse in it for Christmas, and they're excited about that prospect, but still. It's not the same as a real tree house. And they've told me so.

Even today as I walked by the pea-green house I heard Anna say, "Lucky kids."

Really, children, I have your best interests in mind. Really I do.

We're funny humans, sometimes, aren't we? Even if we're getting more and better than we could ever imagine, we still find ways to be discontent.